I’m a little bit excited

My excitement is not so much because Obama won, or because Romney lost. While I think that Obama is a significantly better choice, politics in the USA is largely to the right of where I sit, so Obama winning gives me a sense of relief but probably not enough excitement to lead to me writing an actual blog post.

On the other hand, the long list of wins that Melissa has set out in her post says to me that there might just be something progressive in the air in the USA: apparent rejection of candidates who said horrible things related to rape, election of the first openly gay Senator, marriage equality initiatives passing – generally, the election of people who are not necessarily male, white, cis and wealthy. Of course, I’m not saying all of the people who have those descriptors are bad, and it’s not like they’re not still the majority of elected representatives in the USA anyway – my point is more about the increasing diversity of representation, the apparent value of that diversity to the voters in the USA, and the apparent rejection of certain things (like the people who said horrible things related to rape).

That’s what is getting me excited.

(And wondering whether we might see something similar here in next year’s federal election.)